Hey, so I’ve recently been accepted to 3 great schools (Cornell, Virginia Tech and Cal Poly SLO) and I can’t decide between them. I’m interested in engineering, specifically computer science. These are some of the pros and cons I see for each:
Virginia Tech:
-In state tuition
-strong alumni network
-highly rated for engineering
Cal Poly
-highly rated for engineering
-good location for silicon valley jobs/internships
Cornell
-ivy league (impressive for jobs)
-one of the top CS schools in the country
-impressive other departments (in case I change majors)
-expensive
What do you guys think?
Cornell. But I’m biased. SLO has a good rep for engineering, but it’s hardly close to Silicon Valley. Stanford and UC Berkeley, on the other hand are a different story.
SLO is close enough to Silicon Valley. I know a girl who went there as a CS major in the 80s. She interned and was hired by a big name Silicon Valley firm. And she retired in the 2000s - she can do as she pleases now.
SLO is beautiful, the weather is nice, and if a Silicon Valley job is your goal then it just might be the school for you. If you are from California then I think it would be hard to choose between SLO and Cornell.
If money isn’t a big problem, Cornell is your best bet. It has the strongest engineering program out of the three + the benefits of an Ivy League school and a beautiful city. Internships are equally hard to get whether you’re on the west coast or not. Cornell, being a big name school, definitely gets enough attention from both large and small firms.